Unanswered Questions

[Dave]

Who took the picture of young-Rimmer’s dorm room that he uses to go back in time, in Timeslides? And how is adult-Rmmer in possession of it in the future?

The more I think about this the more it bothers me.

Topic

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

On that “you killed the crew point” – Kryten goes on to say something along the lines of “and it was the same on the SS Augustus” … so presumably Kryten was assigned to a ship for long enough for the entire crew to die of old age, but still be close enough to Earth to be picked up by someone and re-assigned to the Nova 5, where he inadvertently kills them billions of light years from home after he washed the inside of the computer.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Why, if there are cinemas on Red Dwarf, and monitors in all of the living spaces, is Lister watching a film in the drive room in Confidence and Paranoia?

[Ben Saunders]

I’m only going by the show, but the first crew death doesn’t need to be of old age, although that would be pretty funny, Kryten being assigned to two ships in a row where all of the crew age to death and he doesn’t understand. It would be utterly tragic if he had any concept of death before Rimmer points it out to him

[Ben Saunders]

well actually the language Lister uses would make it very strange for both deaths not to have happened in similar fashions, but hey ho.

[Spare Hand One]

Why, if there are cinemas on Red Dwarf, and monitors in all of the living spaces, is Lister watching a film in the drive room in Confidence and Paranoia?

I always kinda liked that. It’s a silent and short-hand way of saying that, for better or worse, he has the run of the ship now. Once formal or professional spaces are now stripped of their meaning.

[Ben Saunders]

He’s lazy, I couldn’t be arsed going all the way to the cinema every time I wanted to watch something. Plus the drive room is cosy

[Dave]

There’s that food machine in the Drive Room (well sometimes, anyway), so if he’s eating and drinking then maybe that’s more convenient.

[Ben Saunders]

Given that the Drive Room appears to be modular, it seems like a pretty good place for that kind of stuff

[Pete Part Three]

He’s watching Netflix.

[By Jove its holmes]

With the Red Dwarf cinemas, I presume that when the crew was around that a crewmember had to put money/tokens in a machine before a film would be shown. So the Four would have to ask Holly to override the systems in order for a film to be shown for free?

[Dave]

I presume it was free and on demand like everything else.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

I presume it was free and on demand like everything else.

Which is only the case right up until Officer Rimmer, when suddenly the crew have “tv packages”.

If we roll that back and assume it’s always been the case, then it would make sense that Holly overrode everything for Lister post accident.

In fact, in Queeg it’s shown that the dispensing machines need credits to use and Holly is responsible for overriding that.

If everything was free and on-demand, what would be the point of a cinema at all? Other than the cinema experience I guess.

[Dave]

Yeah, I was going to mention Queeg – my meaning was that post-accident Holly had made everything free for them, and Queeg makes that pretty clear. Presumably pre-accident it would cost a certain number of credits or dollarpounds.

[International Debris]

Mind you, Lister gets a chicken soup without credits or any kind of technician token at the start of The End.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

It’s Rimmer that orders it right just after he fixes the machine. Presumably techs get to use the machines for testing as much as is reasonable whilst they’re on duty.

[Dave]

I think there’s a Big Finish spinoff in this.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Todhunter uncovers an underground black market meal racket, involving technicians ordering food from vending machines whilst on duty, on their duty test system, and re-selling at lower credit prices than the machines usually dispense them for. Hilarity ensues.

[Dave]

“THE VEND”

[By Jove its holmes]

In MeSquared, there’s an actual sit-down cinema room, and in another episode Kryten indicates to the Cat that that the RD cinema system shows cartoons (Warner Bros.? MGM?) before the movie.

[Ben Saunders]

What are they watching on in Holoship? From memory it looks like they’re all just sitting on some boxes or plastic chairs or something in front of a little TV

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

It’s a little portable TV isn’t it? Like the one they have in the bunk from 3 onwards … because the screen is in totally the wrong place to be useful in the quarters, though good for getting Holly in shot on camera.

[International Debris]

Yeah, portable TV on Starbug.

I love the shitty, lo-tech vibe of the BBC era. Get rid of that widescreen shite on the bunkroom walls and bring back this stuff.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

Same. I like the modern era sets, but the hi-fi tech stuff is too much. The new medi/science room is so flashy

Give me grimmy, run down ship with big mechanical keyboards and old CRT monitors

Make it look like it has been thrown together out of parts for industrial use

[Ben Saunders]

No, don’t

[Ian Symes]

Nah, both the original and the new sets are just adhering to the technological trends of when they were made. Maybe in 30 years time the Dave era will look just as quaint for still using flatscreens instead of whatever we’ve got then.

[Ridley]

Cataracts.

[si]

Those last two posts present a perfect G&T conversation.

[Pete Part Three]

What do you guys think of Series VIII?

[Ben Saunders]

What’s an iguana?

[Hamish]

Who’s eating this chicken?

[International Debris]

Why is Lister constantly trying to fuck his mum in VII and VIII?

[Ben Saunders]

Incest is fine in the future, partly because medical advancements have removed the possibility of birth defects, and partly because there is (VIII notwithstanding) literally no one else

[By Jove its holmes]

Are we sure that the Kanitawowi are not relatives of the Ewoks? they are just as annoying…

[Plastic Percy]

I do rather like the VIII sets. They seem to mesh the Ocean Grey and the white plastic of previous years.

[International Debris]

Incest is fine in the future, partly because medical advancements have removed the possibility of birth defects, and partly because there is (VIII notwithstanding) literally no one else

You’re saying that, if trapped in the future, with your mum as the only company, you’d lust after her? Is that what you’re saying Ben you filthy mite?

[Ben Saunders]

I wouldn’t, no, but I’m not Lister. And I didn’t have a short relationship with my mum and then pine after her unrequitedly for years and years before ever finding out she was my mum in some fucked up sci-fi time shenanigans, either.

[International Debris]

Can you prove it?

[Plastic Percy]

In White Hole, why did they send Rimmer – who can’t touch anything – to gather supplies with Kryten? Cat or Lister should have gone, as then they’d be able to bring back twice as many supplies as they do.

[Quinn: Clochebusters World Champion]

I suspect they sent Kryten, but Rimmer went to oversee he did a good job like the sort of petty middle manager that he is.

[Dave]

Presumably they needed to concentrate all the key life-support functions for Lister and Cat in a relatively small location. They probably didn’t have enough emergency power to heat the ship throughout the route they would have had to travel on foot to get supplies.

[By Jove its holmes]

What does middle manager mean?

[International Debris]

Cat and Lister probably sent Rimmer because they didn’t want to be stuck in a room with him for longer than absolutely necessary.

[Bezzy]

What is Listers goal these days? His plan was to return to Earth but is it still his goal?
Or is Lister on the hunt for Kochanski these days? It’s not really specified anywhere.

[Bezzy]

What happened to Snacky?

[Dave]

Dead

[Ben Saunders]

Red Dwarf is so big and Snacky is so slow that he could be roaming the ship desperately trying to find somebody for years

[Pete Part Three]

How do you ride a horse?

[si]

Carefully.

[By Jove its holmes]

Hey! Let’s hit it and see what happens!

[Dave]

Sir Danzig?

[Author]

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